Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#1
Hello:

I've been trying to get sidux going in my Dell Inspiron 7500 (which I'm using as my test laptop and is not very important if I trash it).

smxi says the kernel is there, and I've gone through it 3 times and supposedly rebooted with the new sidux kernel, but the grub menu does not show.

Eriefisher suggested I check /boot/grub/menu.lst and that also does not show up any sidux kernel.

I have been stopping at the kernel part of smxi, without doing a dist-upgrade.

Anything else I should be doing? (other than declaring victory and giving up on smxi that is __{{emoticon}}__ )

Thanks.
Pedro
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#2
Are you just running smxi with no options, then selecting the kernel upgrade, then rebooting?

I have observed that when I use smxi with sidux, it puts the latest kernel (along with other recent kernels) at the TOP of /boot/grub/menu.lst. I know that with SimplyMEPIS, when I tested using smxi with MEPIS, the kernels I added went to the BOTTOM of the menu file.

I believe that antiX exhibited the same behavior, but I have not performed that task in the past month or so, and I cannot remember with 100% certainty. I do have reason to believe that the new kernel entries MAY be going to the bottom of the file instead of the first entry, which is what you may be expecting.

If you are not getting ANY new kernel entries, then that is another problem altogether.

Do you get any smxi feedback in the console that leads you to believe that smxi is updating /boot/grub/menu.lst? If so, look throughout the file for additional kernel entries. They may be there, just not where you are expecting to see them.
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#3
Masinick:

The grub menu at start up does not change. grub/menu.lst does not show any new kernels.
Yet smxi says the sidux kernel was installed, grub was updated.

The mepis kernel (the only one in the grub menu) boots fine. If I run smxi again it picks up that I already have the latest sidux kernel installed.

I'm deleted smxi.conf several times, and I've told smxi to delete the sidux directory in the hope that it would rewrite it and pick itup correctly.

So far, none of this works. It's a good thing I'm trying this on my old"play" laptop, rather than my newer"workhorse" laptop.

Oh, I also don't get any error messages from smxi. In fact it says that kernel and dist-upgrade went through fine.

I'm not sure what else to try.
Thanks for your comments.
Pedro
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,955
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#4
Do you have any other distro on that laptop?
Are you sure you boot from the grub in antiX?
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#5
Hi Anti:
Only antix 8 test 2 is loaded. The grub that comes up is the new green background with antix logo. It looks the same as in the live cd.
thanks.
Pedro
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,955
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#6
As root in a terminal what does update-grub show?
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#7
Also, when was menu.lst last changed? If you are not seeing an informational message from smxi, stating that it has updated /boot/grub/menu.lst, and then lists the kernel being added in, then that logic is not taking place, and that would explain why you are not seeing the kernel included. The question is,"why"?

I wonder if h2 can weigh in on this?
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#8
Brian:
According to smxi, the kernel is being installed and grub is being updated, yet nothing happens.
I'm not really sure what to do anymore. At any rate, I won't be able to get to that laptop till saturday night to play some more with the script.
thanks.
Pedro
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#9
In that case, only h2 can tell us what is going on in the smxi script. It sounds like the script is"saying" the right things, but the correct behavior is not taking place for some reason.
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,955
anticapitalista
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#10
I had this problem in virtualbox and thought that there was a bug in smxi, but there isn't.
The problem is a corrupted grub. You'll need to reinstall grub into your MBR. Do this via the livecd, Control centre->System->Configure System->Repair System boot->
Check install on MBR
make sure it points to the correct system boot disk (usually sda/hda)
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#11
Anti:
I tried what you suggested and got the following error msg:

"Sorry installing GRUB failed. This may be due to a change in the disk formatting. You can uncheck GRUB and finish installing MEPIS, then reboot to the CD and repair the installation with the reinstall GRUB function"

At this point, seeing how this is only a play/test laptop anyway, the best course might be to reinstall Antix8 test 2, reformatting the home drive this time, and then play with smxi.

It would be nice to find out what I did wrong though, so I don't do it again when it really matters.
Thanks
Pedro
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#12
I have a new problem with smxi now

I reinstalled antix8 test 2 from the live cd. Tried to run smxi and got the following message:

ERROR: Script download exited with errors - Error No: 4

inxi seems to be working fine.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Pedro
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#13
I figured out what error 4 in smxi meant.
I went from a fresh install right into smxi without bothering to set up my wireless. Once I connected to the internet (using ethernet since wireless was giving me problems), smxi works fine.
So, it was just a careless mistake.
Pedro
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#14
Hello:
Here's the state of affairs so far.
I ran smxi with the sidux version. It said it updated to sidux kernel and it updated the grub, yet when I rebooted, the same grub menu only listed the mepis kernel. I tried to repair grub using livecd, as anti suggested, and got that error msg of not being able to write to the disk. That procedure seemed to destroy my grub somehow, since when I rebooted, all I got was a GRUB> command line.

Not knowing anything about grub (and after trying a few of the options listed under TAB) I went ahead and reinstalled Antix8 (test2), re-ran smxi to sidux conversion. Seemed to run fine, again, and once again, grub only shows 3 options, the first one (latest kernel) does not work, but the regular mepis kernel boots.

I checked grub/menu.lst and it does list only the options displayed on the screen and not the sidux kernel.

I'm not sure why this script does not work in my hands, however, it seems to be running fine while it runs. No error msg, etc and it says it's installing the kernel and updating the grub.

This is only a test computer. I was trying out smxi to become familiar with it before I tried it on a 'puter that really matters. I was hoping to see it work successfully once, but this has become a real struggle. I'm not really sure why.

Any suggestions?
Thanks
Pedro
anticapitalista
Posts: 5,955
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Sep 2007
#15
Padro, when you installed did you install to the MBR?
Also, did you change the default language when installing?

You could try using an older version of antiX livecd and see if that succesfully writes grub.